July 2014 Cincinnati Steampunk Salon Report

The July Salon was rather less attended than the past three at Molly Malone’s (or Molly’s as we affectionately like to call it) with only 88 people making an appearance; there were two other events occurring that night that drew largely upon the same crowd that comes to the Salon . . . ah well. The 88 still managed to have a swell time, and yet again new comers who just happened to stumble upstairs out of curiosity concluded the evening with plans to create an outfit and return the next month.

Brian Kollig doesn’t often get in the picture, but when he does it’s with six women.

For the first two hours of the Salon people mingled, socialized, drank, ate, and shared tales of mirth and adventure while on the wall, silently, we projected The Importance of Being Earnest, and Metropolis; the projector was actually dysfunctional and only projecting in black and white which made the 1999 production of Earnest look even more apropos. The winner of the online Steampunk Costume Contest was not being announced until around 10:30PM, which gripped several people in nervous anticipation; two of the top three were actually at the Salon!

Dr. Forge on the left.

Around 10:30PM is when we transition from social time to our performances and then dancing; I (Aloysius Fox) took the stage to MC this shift in the program. Starting with this month’s birthdays we lined the front of the stage and celebrated them with three rounds of “Hip-Hip!” “Huzzah!” but one important birthday pirate was missing . . . Dr. Forge was outside smoking, but returned to the third floor just as we were finishing the birthdays, just in time to get his own individual cheer! Dr. Forge, who writes for this site, who directed the panels for the 2014 Steampunk Empire Symposium, and has himself presented popular panels on welding, was turning 40 on the same day as the Salon, July 5th. We had him on stage and sang a few rounds of “He’s a Jolly Good Fellow!”

Richter on the left, sans mask . . . it was not a full moon.

Then it was time to announce the winner of the Costume Contest . . . third place was Prof D’Still, second place was Cincinnati’s own Jared Presley (aka Steampunk Jim Henson), and in first place was Richter Omegawho had actually driven up from Louisville, Kentucky to be there that night. Richter is the winner of a weekend badge to the 2015 Steampunk Symposium, a Symposium t-shirt, and a complete set of pins that includes the new Ohio Steampunk Society pin, (sorry Richter, we’ll get you the Kentucky Steampunk Society pin as soon as it’s produced 🙂 ) PLUS, Richter’s image will be used on the next batch of promotional flyers for the Symposium . . . look out for details and previews of these new flyers . . . this is something different that you’re really going to like. July’s Pandora Society Contest is for Goggles, Guns, and Gadgets and the entry form will posted later today.

After announcements it was time to move on to the entertainment from Zahara’s Tangled Web with her hypnotic belly dance routines as a preview of what to expect at the Midsummer Masquerade on July 19th. DJ Nymphoma returned as our guest DJ and played out the rest of the night as people danced into the early hours of Sunday. If you are interested in performing or DJ’ing at an upcoming Steampunk Salon, please fill out our Application Form and we will see what we can arrange 🙂

The next Salon is Saturday, August 2nd and we invite you to RSVP to our Facebook Event Page for updates and to get a sense of how many people will be there this time. Also coming up this month for The Pandora Society, as mentioned above is our fifth annual Midsummer Masquerade on July 19th.